Kevin Crossett of Guitar Sam and Mary Kay Blouin of Athena's clear the sidewalk outside their stores on Main Street in Montpelier during Friday's storm.

While the rest of New England was coping with a nor'easter, central Vermont was dealing with a storm of its own.

Meteorologist Jessica Neiles with the National Weather Service said the storm that started dumping snow across Vermont early Friday is from a low pressure system that came from the Great Lakes region. The winter storm hitting states like Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire had made its way up the East Coast.

Postal officials report that all post offices in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont will be closed today due to dangerous weather conditions forecast throughout the region. There will be no mail delivery as a result. Normal post office hours of operation are expected to resume Monday.

Even though central Vermont's storm wasn't projected to drop several feet of snow, as the nor'easter was, it still left its mark.

Neiles said the first recorded snowfall from the storm came at around 4 a.m. Friday, and by 1 p.m. Barre was reporting 5.8 inches. By noon, Waterbury had 7 inches of snow, and later reported 10. Neiles said the storm should end by noon today and was projected to drop as much as a foot of snow.

Neiles said it was unusual to have two storms so close together, and she did expect them to combine sometime Friday night, but they would be mostly past Vermont by then.

Around central Vermont, emergency crews were certainly feeling the effects of the storm.

In North Danville, a chimney fire broke out at a residence on Wheelock Road before noon Friday. Danville's fire chief, Troy Cochran, said the snow meant that fire crews were slower in getting to the blaze.

“It's pretty typical around this area to deal with snow. It just slows you down, that's all. We just take it in stride,” he said.

Cochran said the fire was knocked down within eight to 10 minutes with little damage and no injuries.

Vermont State Police also had their hands full with the storm. Around 7:30 a.m. Friday, state police reported a four-vehicle crash on Interstate 89 in Bolton.

State police said Waterbury resident Briana L. Aylward, 20, was northbound when she lost control of her vehicle, veered to the left and drove through the median. Aylward then struck the driver's side of a vehicle driven by Richmond resident Gregory S. Nagurney Jr., 34, and collided head on with a vehicle driven by Alan J. Andress, 29, of Cape Charles, Va.

Jordan M. Maynard, 27, of St. Albans, was driving behind Andress and rear-ended him when he was unable to stop.

State police say Aylward was taken to Fletcher Allen Health Care with injuries to her right arm and chest that were not considered life-threatening. A passenger in Andress' vehicle, Linda Nolasco, 28, of Richboro, Pa., was also taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening chest, abdomen and back injuries.

Everyone involved was said to be wearing their seat belt.

State police reported another multi-vehicle crash near Exit 13 on I-89 in South Burlington shortly after 1 p.m. One southbound lane was blocked, and state police said both northbound lanes had substantial backups.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick issued an order closing all roads to traffic with the exception of public utility, safety and emergency vehicles. Mark Bosma of Vermont Emergency Management said there was no state of emergency in Vermont, despite an erroneous report.

Into the evening, rescue personnel and emergency crews were responding to multiple accidents across the region. No serious injuries were reported.